ICAERUS has taken flight! The kick off meeting, held on July 4th 2022 in Athens, took place at the Agricultural University of Athens and brought together the 13 partner consortium to strategize and map out the projects short and long term goals and activities.
ICAERUS is a 4 year project, funded by Horizon Europe under the Grant Agreement 101060643 and aims to exploit the disruptive potential of drone technologies for creating significant positive impact for farmers and rural communities.
Drones have been gaining in popularity across industries and have the potential to monitor soil, track livestock and collect weather, plant health data, and other data in areas previously too remote or dangerous to access, making them highly valuable tools in the agricultural industry. In rural communities, drones also have the potential to ease logistics challenges and deliver medicines and supplies or track changes in biodiversity and fire hazards across forested areas.
Despite the potential benefits, drone uptake has been limited by costs, lack of knowledge and regulatory restrictions, which vary by country. ICAERUS plans to combine research & development (R&D) with demonstrations, training and targeted financial support through Open Calls to address these challenges. The project’s multi actor approach brings together industry, researchers and end-users through 5 specific drone applications Use Cases that span the most important sectoral and societal drone usage purposes in Europe (drone spraying, crop monitoring, livestock monitoring, forestry and biodiversity, and rural logistics).
ICAERUS stands for Innovations and Capacity Building in Agricultural Environmental and Rural UAV Services and the project’s two pronged approach will first, close knowledge gaps and reduce risks factors and second, will help promote the use of drones in remote areas. The project will conduct an analysis of the Drone Market Landscape which will identify how technologies can meet stakeholder needs, and assess the benefits and opportunities of innovative drone applications, as well as the barriers and limitations for their deployment in different agricultural, environmental and rural contexts. A Drone Data Analytics Library will also be an open-access repository of the most significant existing and emerging drone data analytics models and algorithms based upon the needs identified by stakeholders. The library will be updated with results from the testing, validating and optimizing of select models and algorithms conducted by the Use Cases and Open Call Trials. ICAERUS will also create Innovative Business and Governance Models to help businesses make the most of their relationship with drones. Policy recommendations will consolidate the results and impact of governance models on drone policy and the tackling of EU policy priorities like food security, climate change, biodiversity and sustainable growth. To help all types of stakeholders stay informed and better connected with drones, the ICAERUS Academy will feature free open access online training courses combining textual, video and animated content on 8 drone related subjects, as well as onsite learning workshops in coordination with Use Case demonstration activities.
Stay tuned for updates on all of the excited project activities and opportunities to get involved!
